With conventional electronic devices such as mobile telephones, it is known that a key module including translucent key tops is put into a case and light emitted by light sources is guided to the key tops and radiated therefrom. An illumination effect may be obtained by radiating light emitted by the light sources from the key tops.
A multi-directional input unit is known as one of the input units intended for electronic devices of this type. For example, a multi-directional input unit including a rotationally operated encoder is disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2000-215761, the encoder being structured so as to accept rotating, pressing, and tilting operations performed by a user. As for the rotationally operated encoder, to improve the visibility, the entire multi-directional input unit is formed of a translucent material and light emitted by light sources is radiated from the multi-directional input unit.
In the technology described in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2000-215761, however, no consideration is given to improvement of the illumination effect brought by the use of light emitted from the light sources and to parts that are likely to come off the case.
That is, the prior art lacks novelty in illumination because light emitted from light sources is radiated from an entire translucent multi-directional input unit, and thereby the prior art does not visually satisfy users. Thus, it is desired to improve the illumination effect brought by the use of light emitted from light sources. Furthermore, in the prior art, there is no ingenuity to prevent the multi-directional input unit from coming off the case, so the multi-directional input unit may come off the case and may be lost when it is operated by a user.